Milking machines

Doug, one other thing I thought of is that the end of the compressor hose will get a small amount of milk/moisture right where it connects to the pulsator, over time. I would suggest dipping that end in about 6" or so of bleach water mix at the end of your cleanup. If you don't it will get nasty. Ask me how I know. LOL Just make sure that hose is dry before you hook it back up to milk. I leave it hang, pulsator end down, and it is dry by next milking. My milk barn is heated so not sure how that would work in freezing weather if you are not heated. Hope that helps!

Tom

If you're going to wash milk soaked equipment with hot water, rinse it with warm or cool water first. Milk actually reacts with heat and can form a plastic. The higher the milk fat, the easier it is to turn to plastic especially if it is exposed to anything acidic. Causes cloudy glass.

Fun experiment if you want to try it. http://ilovebacteria.com/makeplastic.htm

Frosted Minni's, the paper to clean the machine says 1/2 cup bleach to 1 gal of cold water.
Here is what I do after milking:
1. Empty all milk from milk bucket and rinse bucket with cold water.
2. Suck up 2 gal of cold water and empty then rinse bucket in cold water again.
3. Wipe off inside/bottom of the bucket lid with wet wash cloth. (just cold water)
4. Suck up 2 gal of water that has 1 cup of bleach mixed in it. Swish around and dump.
5. Wipe off inside rim of bucket and the entire outside of the milk bucket with a wet washcloth. (Wet from your bleach/water mixture)
6. Take bucket lid apart from pulsator rinse in cold water then wash all components of lid in cold water/bleach mixture.
7. Wash, with the same bleach/water mixture, milk lines and inflation shells and anything (milk stand) they are going to touch before, after, during milking.
8. Wash all tubs, jars, etc that you use in the milking process in the same 1/2 cup bleach to 1 gal water mixture and let drip dry.

Note: I also dip compressor hose in bleach/water mixture at the end that connects to the pulsator and allow to drip dry.

Tom

The milk machine is sitting in my kitchen. Hadn't had time to hook it up. Not in a hurry right now. Only milking 4.

It says clean with warm water. Run it through with bleach.

I'm going to build a place for the pump to sit above my head. I'm probably a month away from being in operation.

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You don't want it *right* above your head. Noisy and irritating. Across the room above head height, yes. Above your head, no.

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

That's interesting, my papers all say cold water. Guess they changed something in the past few years. Everyone says that you should rinse with cold water first so you don't get milk stone. You will love it when you get it setup.

Tom

I haven't read the papers. That's what he said on the phone.

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Don't put it over your head...ask me how I know that...got a few bruises from standing up and hitting my head on mine and I am short.
I wish my Segel came with soft teet cups then the hard cups I think I would get better suction. As is it gets the job started but after the teet and udder softens it falls off so I have to finish milking by hand.

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Was looking at the website yesterday and noticed he prefers delaval to surge. Wonder how he has rigged up his delaval milker... also learning about nupulse pulsators.... ots has changed. good thread.

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Tiny Forest ~ my tiny blog

Cold water?
Warm water rinse followed by hot water wash with chlorinated detergent then a warm acid rinse let air dry.
This is what is recommended by any dairy equipment company I know of. It is how modern equipment is washed it is what is recommended by the national mastitis council.

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.

So how often do you have to change out the plastic bottles on the ultimate ezmilker? If you can't get platic clean and things get gross quickly then I would think that the bottles would have to be changed quite often.

When they get filmy looking inside.

My cleaning process:
Rinse with cool water
Rinse with Hoegger's foaming acid dairy wash
Rinse with Hoegger's dairy soap solution
Rinse three times with clear cool water

Links to dairy wash and soap:
http://hoeggerfarmyard.com/xcart/Foa...Detergent.html
http://hoeggerfarmyard.com/xcart/Pow...Soap-2lbs.html

I have also experimented with using a solution of generic Dollar Store dishwasher detergent. It works just as well.

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

I used pfanzite with warm water and used it to clean everything coming in contact with raw milk and dairy in general. it does an excellent job of removing grease with just warm water. no hard scrubbing or laborious process. my glass bottles were squeaky clean and often commented on by those who brought foul-smelling supposedly clean glass and plastic jars for me to store for their next visit. amazing how little care some give to the jars that will store their milk. i often cleaned their jars too though i wasn;t supposed to. looking forward to using it again with my next surge.

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Tiny Forest ~ my tiny blog

Alice, isn't that what this is? http://udderlyez.com/detail.php?Id=49

HOORAY! That's new since I last looked. THANK YOU! YIPPEE!

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

Sweet.

I'm getting ready to bite the bullet and order the DP60HD. I *hate* to spend money, but DH is insisting I buy it so that I can milk and not have to deal with constant pain in my elbows and upper arms. Doug, have you used yours yet? If so, how do you like it?

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http://harvestmoon-farm.blogspot.com/